Monday, August 12, 2013

You can listen to a podcast review of this movie below, or subscribe to Bina007 Movie Reviews in iTunes.

YOU'RE NEXT is a properly laugh-out loud funny, sometimes spoofy, sometimes properly scary horror movie from director Adam Wingard. Once you get attuned to the fact that he's playing it for laughs, abetted by straight-faced actors, you can sit back and enjoy this wonderfully camp twist on the final-girl home invasion horror.

In writer Simon Barrett's set-up, a preppie extended family gathers in an isolated swanky mansion for a reunion. They soon descend into jealous sniping and convey their contempt for the hipster indie film-maker boyfriend of one of the daughters (a nice touch, that!) But we know from the obligatory adulterer-and-slut-slasher prologue that mayhem is about to be unleashed. The plot unfolds for an enjoyable fifty minutes or so, with a satisfyingly gory pile up of bodies, and the brilliant fun of watching the sweet Aussie girlfriend (Sharni Vinson) transform into a practical no-nonsense heroine. I also love how the snarky competitive elder brother remains snarky and competitive even with an arrow through his back: "I'm the fastest runner but I have an arrow through my back!" Joe Swanberg at his finest.

Sadly, the first of the three twists - or really the major twist that sets up the two sub-twists - is a bit predictable, and also a bit rootless. In other words, it coulda been anyone, and it's clearly just a convenient plot point rather than anything more meaty. The second twist is even more predictable - absences in horror always are. The final twist was the funniest and most tragic and I kinda wish Wingard had stuck with it, but there we are. I can see the emotional justification for the alternative route.

All of which is coded language that signifies the following: the acting and dialogue are sometimes deliberately obvious, but Sharni Vinson in particular is absolutely superb and a charismatic screen presence. The movie may jump the shark in terms of going Full Comedy in the final twenty minutes - all that 80s synth music when the Final Girl goes MacGuyver - but I had a fantastic time watching it, and could easily watch it again just for that blender scene. There's many a studio comedy that never approaches this level of entertainment, and there's brilliantly inventive gore too.

YOU'RE NEXT has a running time of 96 minutes and is rated R in the USA and 18 in the UK for strong bloody violence.

YOU'RE NEXT played Toronto 2011 and opens in the USA on August 23rd, when it also plays Frightfest. It opens on August 28th in Belgium, Ireland and the UK. It opens in Spain on August 30th, in France on September 4th, in Greece on September 5th, in Poland on September 6th, in Argentina on September 12th, in Denmark and Italy on September 19th, in Chile on September 26th, and in New Zealand on October 17th.